Haiti candidates demand cancellation of elections

Twelve out of the 18 presidential candidates in Haiti's elections have demanded the vote be cancelled, alleging widespread fraud.

The joint call was made today, following protests by voters unable to cast their ballots.

It represented a serious blow to the credibility of the United Nations-supported elections.

The denunciation followed scenes of chaos and confusion at polling stations in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

UN peacekeepers have been called out to protect the offices of the provisional electoral council, which has validated the poll in most parts of the country.

Bernice Robertson, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group based in Port-au-Prince, says there were a number of irregularities and difficulties reported from polling stations around the country.

"There were irregularities related to voters' names on the voters' list. They said in a number of places people couldn't find their names on the list," she said.

"In some places there were reports of the absence of essential material like ballots and so forth, so that interrupted the process to some measure."

While two-thirds of the presidential candidates have called for the election to be voided, Ms Robertson says they have not said how the elections have been compromised.

"They didn't go into details on how that fraud manifested itself or how it took place in the polling station," she said.

One presidential candidate says he has been the target of an assassination attempt.

But Ms Robertson says this is not the first time there has been talk of assassination attempts and violence in Haiti's elections.

"What I have been told by Haitian analysts is that some measure of violence generally accompanies Haitian elections," she said.

"They said there has been at least 13 processes since the 1987 constitution and most of them have been accompanied by some levels of violence."

Ms Robertson says despite the allegations of fraud, these elections are critical for a country that lost 250,000 of its people in January's earthquake and is now in the grip of a cholera epidemic.